Weeping willow trees are found in many cities globally.Credit: avada/Alamy Across Beijing, millions of weeping willows and poplar trees turn the megacity into a green metropolis. But compounds released by these trees are becoming a major contributor to air pollution1, finds a study. Beijing is not alone. Many trees planted in urban areas — species
Hundreds of commercial flights will be told to change their paths over the northeastern Atlantic Ocean during the next two winters to show how minor altitude adjustments can reduce aviation’s climate impact. The British government is backing the landmark airspace-scale trial, launched Tuesday, to avoid creating condensation trails, or contrails. Google UK is contributing its artificial intelligence-powered
Global warming isn’t just about heat during the day. Nights are also getting hotter1–3. In May, Delhi recorded an overnight minimum temperature of 32.4 °C, and other parts of India remained 3–5 °C above normal after dark. As Western Europe experienced its hottest June on record, France registered a record overnight low of 22 °C, and East Saxony,
Fossilized microbial mats known as stromalites provide important records of some of Earth’s earliest life.Credit: Jon G. Fuller/VW Pics/UIG via Getty Earth & Life: A Four Billion Year Conversation Andrew H. Knoll Princeton Univ. Press (2026) On 14 February 1990, NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft turned around briefly to snap a picture of Earth before heading
Satellite data shows a browning trend across the planet since around the turn of the century. Credit: ezypix/Getty Around 56 million years ago, a sharp rise in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere led to severe global warming that transformed the planet’s surface. A detailed reconstruction of an ancient ecosystem suggests that this transformation included a
Researchers are racing to determine the impact of rising sea surface temperatures on fragile marine ecosystems.Credit: Armando Babani/Getty The world’s oceans are on the brink of setting an all-time heat record, reaching temperatures that could roil marine ecosystems and sap the ocean’s ability to take up carbon dioxide from the air. “It just spells trouble
